Hey guys! First post! I hope it's worth it.
My first time playing fallout, but this scene stuck to me.
I was in New Reno, reeeeeady to beat some ass. After the 3rd boxer I decided to call it a day - was running low on hp, and it was relatively late in the game - I already had the .233 pistol, lots of AP, Sniper and better criticals. (I was lucky in character creation, I admit it.) I didn't have much to prove, was not aware of the Prizefighter Karma tag, so I figured that the money were not worth it. So I decide to steal the little guy's stimpack, after saving. My party consists of Sulik with a Mega Power Fist. I fail, the little guy attacks me. Does nothing, and goes off after one shot to the eyes. The next boxer dies in the same fashion, so does the third. I may suck at HtH, but I do know how to use that gun. All of a sudden a boxer attacks Sulik. WHAM! Critical, 23 damage. Sulik falls down like a tree, dragging along the floor for three or four hexes. This is the first time I see Sulik whacked so hard. I had seen him nearly killed by bullets and such, but a critical from a pistol for 45 hp is one thing, and seeing an unarmed attack doing that sort of damage to Sulik is scary, if you hadn't played the game before. (I hadn't seen such models before back then anyway, and those boxers sure look mighty). Sulik had never been given anything different than melee weapons, so he was, like, my HtH hero. Each time I stood up against those goons in the ring I knew, that Sulik would've taken them easily. And there he was now, taking a punch through his armor, and with an unarmed attack. Sulik slowly gets up. The combat speed is normal, so it did take some time. He runs over to that huge boxer and with a single punch sends the boxer dragging till he reaches the wall. 10 or 12 hexes. Boxer was critically hit for 213 hit points and was killed. Way to go, boxing champs! And I had my ass handed over to me by that same muscular wuss. I cannot begin to explain how awesome that felt . . . I was but a kid back then, though.
Couple of days ago decided to replay the game, after many years, this time on Hard/Rough. If you haven't done it, do it. Takes the game to a whole different level, brings back suspense and makes it a bit scary. And yeah, random encounters are dangerous. Facing any punk with a gun is a real challenge. If he has an automatic weapon be ready for a swift death if you don't kill him fast. It was a total nightmare . . . and the Magnum revolver does no damage. I don't know why, it just does. Unless it scores a critical. But with fast shot . . . forget it. Single shots are pointless. You need a fast kill, for which you need point-blank range, because, on hard/rough, you roll low, you miss often and all enemies are better than you. And while you are fully capable of not killing someone with a burst at point-blank with 180% small guns, you recieve 45 hp critical hits from stupid 10mm pistols. It's not fair.
So . . . named my character Punisher (yeah, I know, it's lame) and made him a small guns/big guns specialist with fast shot. With a leather jacket(yesterday cleared the Enclave with it, yay for Mad Max) and a combat shotgun with 700+ shells and Cassidy, with the same weapon and 500+ shells, Sulik with a Combat knife, we, after clearing up Vault city (btw a Combat Shotgun burst rarely does more than 12 dmg on metal armor on that difficulty level, which really sux) enter Redding. We went to the Wanamingo mine and were, literally, obliterated. We barely managed to kill 2 aliens on our own. By the time we kiledl the 3rd, the fourth was already kicking our butts. Ugly. So I decided to use the old shoot-once-retreat tactic. 7 saves, 11 hours and over 600 shells later I had 4 out of 8 wanamingos killed. On the first floor. Being fully aware, that that tactic is one hex short of cheating, since they cannot really harm you if you constantly run away, that didn't help the situation. So it was a frustrating experience, which lost me almost all the ammo for my weapon and did no good whatsoever.
So I start moving my butt around the wastes, till someone, finally, mentions the NCR, telling me how to get there (yeah, I know every location of every city by heart, but my character doesn't. Gotta stay in character.) I go there. Rob the guards of their bozars and ammo. Trade in all shotguns, pistols and hunting rifles in, get a Jackhammer for Cassidy. (The guns were taken from back when we massacred Metzger and his men, with the help of Jet, Psycho, Buffout AND Mentats. And a few of Tubby's guns.). I go back to Redding.
After all the abuse I got from those aliens and doing critical strikes for 24 damage with a burst attack it's a bliss to see them dance to your non-critical 460+ damage bursts. I relived the joy of playing the best RPG ever.
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